DART spokesman Morgan Lyons just sent along a copy of the two-page resolution that was apparently approved by the DART board last night. Lyons also promises to call soon, but based on his e-mail, it looks like the board did in fact approve the proposed nondiscrimination policy minus the word “except.” In other words, board member Claude Williams’ interpretation was correct. I guess this is the “blue sheet” to which Board Chairman William Velasco was alluding. But as you can see after the jump, this version ain’t blue.
Remove the two following phrases from Section 2, and ithe policy is improved:
1) “…to the extent permitted by federal and/or Texas law”
2) “…or any other characteristic protected by law.”
Leave the two phrases in, and the policy is impotent.
I am much more concerned about the language in the first line of the policy that says “to the extent they are consistent with Federal or State law.” Granted, it doesn’t say “ONLY to the extent consistent,” but neither does it say “AT LEAST to the extent consistent. It’s ambiguous and doesn’t send a clear message.
The others don’t bother me as much. I’d like to see the first one go that says “to the extent permitted by federal and/or texas law, but I think the second one is fine in my view, and probably ought to be there.
In section three, I don’t see why they need the part about not waiving sovereign immunity. Courts have ruled that these types of policies don’t waive sovereign immunity absent an expression of an explicit intent to waive it. The court will look to the record of the policy formulation or amendment to detemrine that intent. The only reason they would need it is if the law did a 180 degree reversal to say that they do waive it absent an express provision to the contrary. But this clause also sends an ambiguous message to management, and I dodn’t think it is in Dart’s best interest to include it. I think they ought to remove it and comment that the removal is not intended to waive sovereign immunity, where it exists, but to send a clear and consistent message to DART management that discrimination will not be tolerated.